Fox News host Bill O’Reilly has accused The Washington Post of a “huge conflict of interest” over a series of columns published in the newspaper about O’Reilly’s book, Killing Reagan.
The newspaper’s columnist George Will has accused O’Reilly of slandering Reagan and, with co-author Martin Dugard, writing a book that “will distort public understanding of Ronald Reagan’s presidency more than hostile but conscientious scholars could.”
But as TVNewser first reported last week, none of the Post’s columns have disclosed the newspaper’s ties to the people working to protect Reagan’s legacy:
The WaPo’s publisher and chief executive officer, Fred Ryan. Ryan was an advisor to President Reagan and served as his chief of staff after leaving the White House. He’s currently chairman of the Board of Trustees for the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation. As one industry insider quipped to TVNewser, “Fred continues to thread the needle on his conflict of interest career.”
O’Reilly Monday said “Ryan has an agenda, and his subordinates are doing his bidding…without the readers knowing what’s really going on.”
Last week, a Post spokesperson told TVNewser any suggestion Ryan was directing coverage of O’Reilly or his book was “absolutely untrue.”